THREE former Manchester United players have passed away in recent weeks – three wingers who played for the club in the 50s and 60s and were all noted for their crossing.

The triumvirate came from coal mining areas just like the men they played under, Lanarkshire’s Matt Busby and his Welsh assistant Jimmy Murphy, from the Rhondda.

Harry McShane, John Connelly and Kenny Morgans were not household names to more recent generations, but they were well known to those who followed United after the war.

Lancastrian John Connelly was an outside forward at Old Trafford between 1964-66 and he also played 20 times for England. The St Helens-born winger was fast, strong, skilful and brave. He arrived from Burnley and was the missing link in a jigsaw which would see United crowned 1965 champions, the first time since the 1958 Munich Air Disaster.

Connelly played 60 times that season – every league and cup game, but it wasn’t his first title, he’d won the league with Burnley in 1960.

Connelly’s star shone brightly. He scored in the 5-1 win at Benfica in the 1966 game which gave George Best celebrity – and then he was gone, having had words with the manager Busby.

Kenny Morgans should have played in the same side as him. The Welshman, who passed away on Saturday in his home city of Swansea aged 73, was the youngest player on the plane at Munich.

He joined United from school and was captain of the side which won the FA Youth Cup in 1957. Morgans burst into United’s first team as a fast and skilful 18-year-old right winger.

Breaking into the Busby’s first XI wasn’t easy, but Morgans managed it. He played in the Babes’ last game on English soil before the air crash, an epic 5-4 win at Highbury. Played too in Belgrade as United drew 3-3 to reach the semi-finals of the European Cup. The plane crashed in Munich on the way home and Morgans only survived because he was found by two German photographers six hours after the crash. He was trapped in the hold freezing to death.

Although he suffered no serious injuries, his career was never the same.

“He was a kid and trauma must have been overwhelming for him,” said John Docherty, who at Old Trafford in the mid-50s. “He escaped from the disaster with his life, but in football terms he was horribly unlucky. The impetus of his career had been halted brutally.”

Morgans rarely played for United again. He said in 2008: “I stayed for two more years but I wasn’t really interested. I missed the boys so much.

"Because of what had happened to them, I just didn’t seem to care. I tried, but the players were not the same and that upset me.”

He played for Swansea and Newport County, he was invited to the party at United’s team hotel to celebrate the 1968 European Cup win, he ran a pub and then worked as a ship’s chandler in South Wales. After football, Connelly had a fish and chip shop near Burnley.

McShane was another winger signed from a Lancashire club who could be considered unlucky.

Born not a mile from Busby in an area famed for producing footballers, he joined United from Bolton Wanderers in 1950 at the age of 30. He played 12 games in the 1952 title-winning season before suffering a knee injury. You needed to play 14 games to get a championship winners medal. Like the others, he could play on either wing.

In later years, McShane – who was the oldest former player alive – worked as the PA announcer at Old Trafford and helped found the former players’ association. He also worked as a scout around Manchester, helping Wes Brown come to the club.

His son Ian was an actor, best known for playing Lovejoy. McShane’s funeral was held on Wednesday after he passed away aged 92 in Manchester on November 12. Sir Alex Ferguson was due to fly back from Turkey to attend.

The wing trio only played a total of 192 games for the United – less than a quarter of Ryan Giggs’ staggering total, but each with their own stories of lives which gave them great highs and lows. Few footballers can claim like them that they played for Busby’s United – fewer still can claim that they shone when they put on a red shirt.